Panic as 4 Hit in 'Sniper-Type' Shootings in Washington, DC

At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the nation's capital Friday, leading to lockdowns at several schools and leaving a community on edge before the suspect was found dead hours later. The suspected gunman was found dead Friday night inside an apartment at the scene as Metropolitan Police Department officers conducted door-to-door searches of buildings in the area, the AP reports. Hours earlier, police believe the man had erected a “sniper-type setup" with a tripod and rifle in his apartment and began firing indiscriminately at people walking below, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said. The shooting was recorded and posted online on 4chan, an online message board.

The four victims—a 54-year-old man who is a retired police officer, a woman in her 30s, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed by a bullet, and a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the arm—were all expected to recover, police said. For hours, authorities had warned worried residents to stay inside their homes while they conducted a massive manhunt for the shooter. Police did not release the suspect's name, pending notification to his family, but earlier had said they were seeking a 23-year-old Virginia man as a person of interest in the shooting. The man had been “linked to social media postings” that emerged as part of the investigation, Assistant Police Chief Stuart Emerman said.

The gunfire erupted shortly before 3:30pm near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, just as parents were picking up their children from the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory school. The echoing bursts of rapid gunfire rocked the normally quiet neighborhood that’s home to several schools and colleges and dozens of embassies. It sent frantic parents running from the scene and put Burke and other nearby schools on immediate lockdown. Police suspect some of the bullets fired from the high-powered rifle may have traveled several blocks. At least two businesses nearby reported bullet holes in their windows. Police went door-to-door in area buildings as they searched for the shooter for several hours. As officers were approaching the fifth-floor apartment where the gunman was holed up, they believe he took his own life.

(More Washington, DC stories.)